The Ninth Orb (17 page)

Eden suddenly felt as relieved as he obviously was. She smiled more easily. “You haven’t done anything wrong,” she assured him, and with perfect truth, reaching across the space between them to pat his hand reassuringly. “To be honest, we were wondering if we’d done something wrong. I have been … waiting to speak to you until I could talk to everyone and understand better what had happened.”

Of course, she and they knew they had been in the wrong, but fortunately for all concerned, the Xtanians didn’t seem to know it. She’d spent days trying to figure out how to gloss over the incident to prevent serious repercussions, questioning the women who were still in lock up pending trial--because they weren’t certain what to charge them with, questioning the Xtanian about what he remembered, tracking down and questioning everyone who’d witnessed any part of the incident. It was such a relief to discover the breach could be mended fairly simply that she felt almost giddy.

The sticking point was the women who’d almost caused a disaster to start with, but they were accountable and she rather thought that, of the options she was prepared to offer, they would be only too happy to take the consequences of their actions.

He studied her hand where it rested upon his for several moments musingly and placed his free hand over hers. “I will take your message back to the others. They will be relieved to know that it was only a misunderstanding.”

Reluctantly, Eden removed her hand and settled back again. “This should be a lesson to us all,” she said carefully. “We must agree to strive for tolerance of our cultural dissimilarities so that we can learn to co-exist peacefully. It’s inescapable that there are vast differences between the social structures and customs of our two peoples, but as long as we understand that, and don’t allow ourselves to lose our tempers over the misunderstandings that are bound to arise, I believe we can work out a compromise.”

Nodding, Baen rose to leave. Eden rose, as well, and found herself standing almost toe to toe with him. His proximity, she quickly discovered, was enough in itself to resurrect the attraction she’d felt for him from the first that had grown progressively more pronounced, not less so, with familiarity. Her awareness sparked a shy awkwardness. Disordered by it, she extended her hand to shake on their agreement before it occurred to her that that, too, was and Earth custom and one moreover that wasn’t even practiced everywhere on Earth.

Before she could recover the blunder, he took her hand, fitting his palm against hers and curling his thumb over to stroke it along the back of her hand. “Your hands are not like the hands of our women,” he said musingly.

Eden frowned, trying to cast her memory back to the time she’d spoken with his mother queen, Sademeen, but the image had been grainy and indistinct and she couldn’t recall noticing anything about Sademeen’s hands. She wasn’t certain she could have anyway. His touch was stirring currents of warmth inside of her that made it difficult to focus her mind on anything else. “No?” she said a little shakily.

He lifted his head until he met her gaze. His throat worked as he swallowed. He seemed to struggle with himself for a moment before he spoke. “I have thought of you and little else since last I came. When I close my eyes at night, I think I can almost feel your lips and it torments me, because I feel things that are not my right to feel, and wish for things that are forbidden to me.”

Heat rose in Eden at that, bringing a flush to her cheeks. She swallowed against the dryness in her mouth, struggling against the urge to tell him she’d thought of little besides him since she’d first seen him. Guilt warred with her own desires. She was as irresponsible in her own way, she realized, as the women they’d imprisoned. Her desire for Baen had led her to breach yet another boundary that was taboo to them. And yet all she could think about was that she wanted to do it again, to tear it down completely. “I should not have kissed you,” she said a little hoarsely.

Several different emotions flickered across his features. Finally, his face hardened with resolve. “That is not forbidden to me.”

Doubt shook her, but her desire magnified until she was breathless. “No?”

He cupped her jaw in his hand, tilting her face up as he lowered his head toward hers until scarcely a hair’s breadth separated them. His eyes gleamed with heated desire that matched hers as his gaze locked with hers. His lips curled faintly. “No. Because it is not our custom at all,” he murmured, a half smile curling his lips.

It was splitting hairs, and she knew that. She also knew that he did, but she found the offer enthralling, impossible to resist. Closing the distance that separated them, she aligned her lips with his, pressing lightly, feeling a heady rush at the warmth and texture and tautness of his lips beneath hers, and the faint but distinctive and infinitely desirable scent that was him wafted along her senses, mingled with hers, coursed through her lungs into her heart and through her blood stream. He released a gusty sigh, shifting infinitesimally closer as she withdrew just enough to brush her lips lightly, caressingly across his. Heat surged between them, engulfing them in a conflagration that threatened to consume them both, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to stop at that. Just a little more, she thought, tracing the seam where his lips met with the tip of her tongue, only a little. His lips parted at the teasing stroke of her tongue and she nipped at his lips with her own, lightly sucking at first the full lower lip and then the upper.

He lifted his head slightly when she stopped, running his tongue over his lips, tasting her, she knew, as she tasted him on her tongue. He stared down at her lips for several moments as if of more than half a mind to demand more.

She wanted more. She wanted to press her mouth fully to his and explore the inner surfaces of his mouth thoroughly, invite him to explore her.

She wanted to explore and taste every inch of him, so much that it was many moments before her conflicted emotions sifted the tingling, faint stinging crawling over her skin and identified it.

They’d locked the particle transporter on her, she realized, her throat going dry as a cold, hard reality washed over her and tamped the fires.

They could not possibly have interpreted his behavior as aggressive or hostile.

She stepped away from him abruptly.

Confusion filled his eyes. For several moments she thought she had broken the barrier that held him in check, that he would ignore everything except the siren call of desire rushing through him. Finally, he straightened, dragged in a deep, shuddering breath and expelled it slowly.

His gaze flickered over her face searchingly, as if he was trying to assess her thoughts. “They are watching,” he said finally, his voice, still husky with desire, sounding harsh, grating.

Startled at the accuracy of his observation, Eden’s eyes widened. A faint wash of color flushed her cheeks. She cleared her throat. “I’ll escort you to the gateway,” she said instead of responding to his comment.

He nodded a little stiffly and bowed his head formally.

Straightening her spine, Eden turned and led him from her quarters. As before, he trailed her at a respectful distance, but if possible she was even more acutely aware of him than she had been before. The desire that had enveloped her at their chaste exploration waned, but slowly, leaving behind uncomfortable, pulsing sparks of unfulfilled need.

It was as well that they’d interfered, Eden thought wryly as she watched Baen cross the plain toward the distant walls of the alien compound. She wasn’t certain she could have retained enough sense to stop herself.

Lt. Carter met her as she emerged from the corridor once more. “Did it go well?”

Eden shrugged, lifting her head to fix Carter with an assessing look. “Who was in the control room?”

“I was, Ma’am. His behavior was unthreatening, and in any case, I didn’t need help in watching over you.”

Eden nodded. “Summon the council to chambers.” She hesitated, but came to a decision as Lt. Carter turned to leave. “And, lieutenant?”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Bring the prisoners to the council room, as well.”

Eden had been pacing her office for nearly fifteen minutes before she was informed that all of the council members had arrived and were waiting in the council chamber. It was time well spent, however. She’d had time to compose her thoughts.

They greeted her entrance with various expressions of anxiety.

“Ladies,” she addressed them as soon as she’d reached her position at the head of the council table, “I’ve called you here today to discuss our options regarding the incident at the thanksgiving celebration.”

She knew that, by now, they would all have heard that Baen had come to speak to her and she saw from their expressions that they were impatient to hear the results of the conversation none of them had been privy to. They contained their impatience, however, waiting.

“We were not mistaken in considering this a very serious situation. The Xtanians certainly consider it serious.”

“They’re not considering war?” Deb demanded, unable to contain herself any longer.

Eden studied her for a moment. “I got the distinct impression that they expected us to launch a war.”

The women at the table exchanged confused glances. “Impression?” Liz asked. “He didn’t say it?”

Eden shook her head. “What he said was that they believed they, or at least the poor man that was assaulted, had transgressed, and that they would take action against him.”

“To keep the peace?” Liz asked.

Again Eden shook her head. “No, because it is their custom, evidently, to deal with transgressions of this sort by ostracizing the perpetrator.”

“But … that’s good news, right?” Stacy Sessions put in.

“Not to those who are to be punished for something they didn’t do. The broods are closely tied. As I told you before, the customs dictate that a woman who chooses one chooses the brood. Even I didn’t realize, though, that they were as closely tied as it seems now that they are. Apparently, they are seen as one. Latheen shares his disgrace with his brood brothers. They are all to be punished. The brood is to be banished from the kzatha in disgrace. And their only recourse for such a shame is ritual suicide.”

She studied their faces as that sank in.

“But … that’s barbaric!” Stacy exclaimed. “My god! I thought they were an advanced race! How could they practice such barbaric customs if they’re enlightened?”

“It’s not barbaric to them!” Liz snapped. “It’s the way they keep order in their society.”

“It’s completely unjust!” Deb burst out. “I want to keep the peace as much as anyone here, but we can’t let them be punished for something they didn’t do.”

Relief flooded through Eden as she glanced around the table and saw that most of the council members were in agreement with Deborah. “I agree. That’s why I called this meeting. We were fortunate that they misinterpreted the situation, but this isn’t just a matter of doing the right thing--the just thing. Eventually, unless we break off all contact with them, they’re bound to come to realize exactly what happened, and the action we take now could be critical to future relations. Setting aside the fact that it’s unconscionable to allow the innocent to pay for the crimes of the guilty, only because it’s them and not us, we’d be setting an example of irresponsible behavior for our own people, and undermining the trust we now have from the Xtanians.

“The disgrace, as far as I could determine, arose from the belief that Latheen and his brood had been chosen and then failed to meet their ‘queen’s’ approval and been rejected. The only option I see open to us, if we want to keep the peace, and we want to be known for doing the right thing, is to assure the Xtanian’s that they were not rejected. Marion Lynden has chosen a brood. Whether she intended to or not doesn’t matter at this point. She must take responsibility for her actions. Are we in agreement here?”

She settled back to wait as the council members discussed the situation among themselves. After only a few minutes, however, they took a vote to support her decision.

Nodding, she summoned the prisoners into the council chambers. When they’d assembled, she looked each of the women over, catching and holding their gaze for a moment before she moved to the next. Finally, she settled on Marion Lynden. “As the instigator in the unfortunate incident, Marion Lynden, you are most culpable. Don’t try to explain to me, again, what you did or didn’t intend by your actions. By your irresponsible actions, you risked the health and well being of the entire colony. You risked their lives, risked war. All of you are accountable, but you, Marion Lynden, most of all.

“You have two options, and for your sake I hope you chose the one most likely to bring this to a peaceful conclusion. You can accept responsibility for your actions and accept the brood you chose, or you can spend the next fifty years in prison contemplating the seriousness of your actions.”

Marion turned as white as a sheet. Her jaw sagged. Eden could see the wheels turning in her mind while she struggled to cope with the options. “But …we hardly know anything at all about them! You’re saying I would be banished to live among them?”

“You will be expected to perform the duties that were assigned to you when you were chosen for this mission, but you will live with your brood, on neutral ground outside of either colony,” Eden said, not without sympathy, though she kept her voice even.

“Which means they could do anything to me!” Marion spat angrily.

Eden tilted her head assessingly. “You’re asking for leniency when you risked all of our lives for your pleasure?”

Marion stared at her blankly for a moment, swallowed a little sickly and glanced around at the faces of the other council members. “I wasn’t the only one,” she stammered a little weakly.

“You weren’t,” Eden retorted. “And the others have the same options that you have. They can offer to make peace on behalf of the colony by choosing their own broods and working toward building a better understanding between us and the Xtanians, or they can serve time--and we will draw lots for volunteers among the other colonists.